I've never seen the background image and I can't even get it to appear or find a setting for it anywhere. (???)
It's kind of like how my Google News was all weird for like 4 days, and then went back to normal. I do understand a/b testing, but it's strange being an unwitting, unwilling guinea pig for something I use every day like G News.
http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html
This background image breaks at least the first 3 of these 10 things.
If they want to A/B test something like that on a signed in, daily visiting member, they should offer a small explanation and an opt in/opt out option.
Me, I really don't care. Background image? No background image? Who cares. I type something into Google and I get where I want to go. And their other services like Android, Voice, Calendar, and Reader work for me, so I continue to use them. People waste too much time caring about things that don't matter. ("OH NOES, but what if I'm on the moon and really need to Google search! Loading the background would be too slow! You Are Not On The Moon.")